Will County IL Archives Biographies.....Adams, George W 
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Deb Haines http://www.rootsweb.com/~archreg/vols/00003.html#0000719 February 6, 2008, 12:44 am

Author: Past and Present of Will County, IL; 1907

George W. Adams is a retired farmer and a veteran of the Civil war living in 
Peotone. He was born in Vermont, in 1841, and is a representative of old New 
England families. His father, Horace Adams, was born in Massachusetts, in 
1801, and departed this life September 5, 1877, when in the seventy-seventh 
year of his age. He came to Illinois in 1837, casting in his lot with the 
pioneer residents of the county. He entered land in Crete township, and after 
working on his claim for a time he returned to Vermont. In 1845 he brought his 
family to the new home which he had prepared in the west, remaining upon that 
farm until 1865, when he sold the property and bought another farm in the same 
township. Eventually he sold the second place and removed to the village of 
Crete, where he lived for about two years prior to his death. He was a good 
farmer and business man who prospered in his undertakings. He kept a large 
number of cattle and brought his fields under a high state of cultivation, 
keeping in touch with the advanced methods of farming, as experiment, 
scientific knowledge and invention improved upon the system formerly in 
effect. In politics he was at one time a whig and after the dissolution of the 
party became a stanch republican. His wife, Mrs. Katherine Adams, was born in 
Massachusetts December 6 1806 and died March 4 1893, in her eighty-seventh 
year. She was a member of the Congregational church and was a worthy Christian 
woman. In the family were ten children, nine of whom reached adult age, 
namely: Roxanna and William L., both now deceased; Edwin H., who was a soldier 
of the Civil war, and is also deceased; Roxanna J., who married James Mills 
and after his death became the wife of Alfred Mower; Emily Susan, the wife of 
Dow Manson, of Maine; George W.; Frank J., a resident of Peotone; Martha Ann, 
the widow of Horatio Gaines, a resident of Crete; Freeman A., deceased; and 
Julian, a retired farmer living in Steger, Illinois. Edwin H. Adams enlisted 
in the Ninth Minnesota Volunteer Infantry as a member of Company F, in 1862, 
and was taken prisoner on the 11th of June, 1864. He was incarcerated at 
Andersonville and thence sent to Florence, where he died February 19, 1865, 
owing to the rigors and hardships of army prison life. He was then in his 
thirtieth year and was serving with the rank of corporal. His remains were 
interred at Florence. Frank J. Adams, born April 1, 1843, was also one of the 
boys in blue. He enlisted on the 31st of July, 1862, in Company G, One 
Hundredth Illinois Volunteer Infantry, and first went to Louisville, Kentucky, 
thence marching to Nashville, Tennessee, and on to Chattanooga. At the last 
named place he was wounded and remained there from September until the latter 
part of November unable to engage in active service. He was honorably 
discharged at Quincy, Illinois, June 22, 1865. George W. Adams was reared to 
farm life and in his boyhood days attended the district schools. The 
occupation to which he became familiar in his youth was that which occupied 
his manhood years until his retirement. He lived in Will township from 1870 
until 1892 and during that period successfully carried on farming until his 
labors had brought him capital sufficient to enable him to put aside business 
cares and live in honorable retirement, surrounded by the comforts and many of 
the luxuries of life. The only interruption to his active work on the farm was 
during his service in the Civil war. On the 13th of September, 1861, when 
twenty years of age, he enlisted at Crete in Company F of the Eighth Illinois 
Cavalry and was mustered out December 29, 1862, at Newark, New Jersey, by 
reason of disability. In 1870 Mr. Adams was married to Miss Mary Jane Lotz, 
who was born in Lockport, Will county, in 1844, and is a daughter of David and 
Corrina (Farley) Lotz. Her father came to Will county from Pennsylvania, 
settling at Lockport in 1838. He was a carpenter and carbinet-maker and died 
in Lockport in 1846, at the age of thirty-four years. His wife came from the 
state of New York with her parents, Benjamin and Polly Farley, the journey 
being made in a wagon across the country in 1838. They settled first in 
Illinois and subsequently removed to Indiana. Mrs. Adams' parents had two 
children, her brother being David Lotz, who died at the age of six years. Unto 
Mr. and Mrs. Adams has been born but one child, William Horace, who is now 
employed as a salesman in Chicago. He wedded Mabel Mellem a native of that 
city, and they have one daughter, Mary Elizabeth. Mrs. Adams is a faithful and 
devoted member of the Presbyterian church and he belongs to William Webb post, 
G. A. R. In politics he is a republican and has served as school director. In 
matters of citizenship he is always loyal and progressive and is interested in 
all that pertains to the welfare and progress of his village and county. For 
almost two-thirds of a century he has lived in Will county and is thus largely 
familiar with its history and development from the days of its early pioneer 
settlement down to the present. His life has been quietly passed, yet he has 
displayed those sterling traits of character which in every land and clime 
awaken good will and confidence. 

Additional Comments:
PAST AND PRESENT OF WILL COUNTY, ILLINOIS By W. W. Stevens President of the 
Will County Pioneers Association; Chicago: The S. J. Clarke Publishing 
Company, 1907

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